The Girl In The Polygraph Test: Part Two
[Original version posted on my blog on 24 February 2014 as "Part Two: The Girl In The Polka Dot Dress, The Girl In The Polygraph Test"]On 20 June 1968, Sandra Serrano was interviewed by Lieutenant Enrique Hernandez, chief polygraph operator for the Los Angeles Police Department in its investigation of the murder of US Senator Robert Kennedy. Posted below are a dozen pages of transcription of the audiotaped interview. Since there are more than four dozen total pages, I am dividing the presentation into separate articles. The excerpts I quote represent what I think are highlights. I believe it deserves to be read in full by anyone interested in this case. Asterisks are original to the transcription, indicating that something is unintelligible. The letter H stands for Lt. Hernandez as the speaker, and S represents Sandra Serrano.
Lt. Hernandez had first gotten off on the wrong foot by asking that Serrano come in for an interview without mentioning a polygraph (pp. 12-13). She was skeptical and mistrustful from the start. After some small talk and preliminary explanations, Hernandez told her (p. 8) that he "talked to nineteen other girls" who "have made statements regarding what they observed on the night..." He left unspecified the subject of their observations but later returned to the subject of the girls, saying that only Serrano and one of those 19 had been sincere. All the others were in it for money, making a name off the event, etc. (Hernandez told Jerry Owen during his polygraph interview that he'd talked to 23 people on the lone allegation of a girl in a polka dot dress.)
Lt. Hernandez then tried to impress upon Serrano the need to get facts straight as there had evidently been some controversy involved in the investigation of the murder of President Kennedy.
....when the report on the [Robert] Kennedy assassination, on the Kennedy assassination is written, we want to make sure that we don't have something like we did in Dallas, Texas. We want to make sure that the Warren Report that was written in Dallas, Texas is not, that this report is not incomplete, that this report is a complete, thorough investigation of what's done, and no stones were left unturned.
On page 10, we see Hernandez finally get down to attempting a polygraph exam. He began by asking if "Sandra" was her true first name. Serrano answered No, and Hernandez moved on.
H: If I ask you questions about the Ambassador Hotel, will you tell me the truth?
S: Yes.
H: Do you believe that I will be completely fair with you throughout this examination?
S: No.
H: Between the ages of eighteen and nineteen, do you remember lying to the police about something very serious?
S: No.
H: When you told the police that a girl with a polka dot dress told you she had shot Kennedy, were you telling the truth?
S: She didn't say we had shot Kennedy... She said, "We shot him." I don't know if she was saying we...
H: Okay.
S: ...you know, her.
[An early example of what will become more and more obvious: Sandra Serrano's intelligence; she recognized the trap(s) in his paraphrasing of her report and sought to be very accurate about details-dwd]
H: Okay. Did a girl in a polka dot dress tell you that, "We have shot Kennedy"?
S: A white dress, black polka dots.
H: Did a girl in a white dress with black polka dots tell you, "We have shot Kennedy"?
S: Yes.
H: During the first nineteen years of your life, do you remember lying to an FBI agent?
S: No.
[p. 11]
H: After Kennedy was shot, did you lie to an FBI agent?
S: No.
H: On election night, at the Ambassador Hotel, did you yourself see a girl with a white dress with black polka dots?
S: Yes.
H: Is there some other question that you're afraid I will ask you during this test?
S: Like what?
H: Have you tried to answer all my questions truthfully?
S: If possible. (marking sounds) [i.e., sounds of Hernandez's marking with pen/pencil-dwd]
After this preliminary discussion and questioning, and brief debate about the validity of polygraphing (as Serrano had answered No to her first name being "Sandra," to which Hernandez found the polygraph response "meaningful"), they got down to her real complaint. She told Hernandez (p. 12), "Well, because I think it was rotten in the beginning because you never mentioned it to my aunt that we were gonna take a polygraph."
[p. 13]
H: To who?
S: To my aunt.
H: Oh yes I did, I told her this morning.
S: She never, she said they just, you just wanted to talk to me, 'cause I asked her.
H: Well Sandy, uh, Sandy, look.
S: It was never mentioned, and I think that's rotten.
H: She was in here during the test. [evidently meaning the pre-polygraph interview-dwd]
S: Yeah, yeah, I know that, I, I think this is rotten, though. But anyways, go ahead. You know, we're here, we can't do anything about it, let's go and get it done with, that's the way I feel about it now.
(Click on images for slide-show or open in new tab or window to view full-size)
Continue to Part Three
Return to Table of Contents